brain.com

A new research study of 1157 people has found that active brains are better able to resist cognitive decline. On the other hand, once dementias are noticed the rate of decline may increase for those who have been able to stave off the earliest indicators of the disease. What is hypothesized according to experts like Drs. Peterson and DeKosky is that cognitive reserve from brain-training activities plays a role in lengthening the period of cognitive effectiveness.

Meditation, Relaxation. and Deep Thinking is threatened by constant reliance on digital devices, say neuroscientists in a NY Times piece.

A shift in research strategy among scientists is beginning to yield insights into how Alzheimer’s disease begins. The key to the Alzheimer’s project was an agreement as ambitious as its goal: not just to raise money, not just to do research on a vast scale, but also to share all the data, making every single finding public immediately, available to anyone with a computer anywhere in the world.

Scientists believe that sometimes the brain throws up roadblocks to prevent the cortex from being disturbed during crucial periods of sleep when memories are consolidated. These roadblocks are sleep spindles, which also have a characteristic appearance on an EEG.

Researchers from Harvard Medical School's Division of Sleep Medicine and colleagues theorized that people whose brains produced a higher rate of sleep spindles would be rewarded with a sounder sleep.

To test their hypothesis, they convinced 12 volunteers to spend three nights in a sleep lab at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital....read the whole piece

A specific area in our brains is responsible for processing information about human and animal faces, both how we recognize them and how we interpret facial expressions. Now, Tel Aviv University research is exploring what makes this highly specialized part of the brain unique, a first step to finding practical applications for that information.

In her "Face Lab" at Tel Aviv University, Dr. Galit Yovel of TAU's Department of Psychology is trying to understand the mechanisms at work in the face area of the brain called the "fusiform gyrus" of the brain. She is combining cognitive psychology with techniques like brain imaging and electrophysiology to study how the brain processes information about faces. Her most recent research on the brain's face-processing mechanisms was published in the Journal of Neuroscience and Human Brain Mapping. MORE

A new study involving canines has found that changes in diet and exercise can impact the speed of Alzheimer's onset...

The findings show the importance of taking multiple approaches to arrest the disease in humans, the authors say. Their results also provide evidence supporting recent research that suggests plaque deposits in the brain are not the cause of Alzheimer’s.


Alzheimer’s disease usually strikes people over the age of 60 and causes memory loss, shrinking brain tissue and eventually death. People with the disease get plaques in their brains made up of a small protein called amyloid-beta, which clumps together and disrupts brain signals.

Exercise followed by a relaxing mug of tea might be a good tonic for the brain in old age, research suggests from this week's Alzheimer's Conference in Hawaii.

In two separate studies, US scientists found that physical activity and regular consumption of tea or coffee both protect against mental decline.

One team led by Dr Zaldy Tan, from Harvard Medical School, Boston, followed the progress of 1,200 elderly men and women with an average age of 76.

Health checks after an average of 10 years showed that those who engaged in moderate to heavy levels of exercise had a 40% lower risk of developing dementia than the least physically active.

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